Shadow Or No Shadow : Can Phil Deliver Winter To Twin Falls?

It's about that time again. A large crowd will gather later this week in a small, central Pennsylvania town, to take part in an annual ritual involving a rodent with a propensity for incorrectness.

Groundhog Day is Friday. That's the day "Punxsutawney Phil," the town's famed groundhog, will unnaturally wake from hibernation, only to be greeted by thousands of human beings--a great deal of them doing their best Abe Lincoln impersonation--freezing their butts off.

To the rest of us outside the borders of Pennsylvania, this tradition might seem strange, and a waste of resources. It's hard to believe this community has kept this going for over 120 years, according to the earliest known records.

Phil's statistics would imply we are in for six additional weeks of winter, as he has only not seen his shadow 17 times in 120 attempts, according to Wikipedia. I think what Phil is really trying to communicate to the 40,000 or so people that gather at Gobbler's Knob annually, is that he could use a friggin plant or something to munch on after 12 weeks of sleep.

Regardless of what we think of Groundhog Day, we could probably use a few extra weeks of winter at this point, if for no other reason to make the ski resorts a little extra money for lost time.

As far as I'm personally concerned, let the sunshine and fifty-degree temperatures continue. I'm a tshirt and shorts kinda guy, and we are still operating on a healthy supply of water from last winter's snowfall, not to mention I haven't got stuck in my driveway in the past 10 months. As far as Groundhog Day, at least we got a damn funny movie out of it, if nothing else.